Red Star Falling: A Thriller (27 page)

‘What about Irena’s claim that the Lvov project was all her idea?’ queried Bering.

Stern shrugged. ‘We’re going to drain her dry before we start asking who had the key to the executive washroom. You know what it’s like, everyone claiming the credit for initiating the big one. We get enough from the Brits, we’ll be able to judge for ourselves who thought it up in the first place.’

Bering gestured beneath the table to where he knew the unseen briefcase was tightly held between the other man’s legs. ‘How much have you taken out from what I’m sending to London?’

‘Not a lot,’ said Stern. ‘Just the actual names she’s given us. The less we keep back, the less, hopefully, the Brits will hold from us. But this gal is giving us a lot of worries.’

‘How?’

‘She fingered a guy in Yemen, a member of the Arab League we’ve been using and trusting for years, as an FSB plant.’

‘Bad?’

‘It’s going to take us a long time to be sure but we’ve already isolated one wrong steer the son of a bitch gave us.’

Their steaks arrived and Bering hesitated for the waiter to leave before he said, ‘You’re right about the potential of what we’ve got, in total. It’s important we keep it that way, tight to ourselves.’

‘That’s what I thought we were doing: it’s certainly what I’m doing. I’m not sharing a piece of this pie with anyone.’

‘I had breakfast with the Director yesterday. He started talking about a minimal task force.’

‘Fuck!’

‘I told him it wasn’t necessary. That we had it all boxed and wrapped between us.’

‘What can you do to block it if it comes up again?’ queried Stern.

‘Convince him we’re getting everything possible, as we are, but I’ve warned Elliott against an approach from anyone but me.’

‘I’ll monitor it from my side. Nothing’s going to happen without my knowing about it.’

‘Something else,’ said Bering, as the thought came to him. ‘If Irena comes up with anything internal, here in the U.S., you won’t forget jurisdiction, will you? We can’t risk giving either director an excuse to move in.’

Briefly, almost imperceptibly, Stern’s face clouded. ‘We’re doing this straight, okay? Mutual co-operation, mutual benefit, both of us happy.’

‘That’s the deal, both of us happy,’ agreed Bering, belatedly aware he’d come close to impugning the other man’s integrity. ‘I’m not likely to forget it.’

‘That’s good to hear,’ said Stern, limiting the rebuke. ‘Let’s neither of us forget it.’

*   *   *

‘I’ve attached a specific note to the internal case files that the decision to exchange debriefings with America is entirely mine, reached without any consultation with either of you,’ announced Aubrey Smith. ‘If there is any subsequent enquiry—if anything backfires—you’re totally uninvolved.’

‘That wasn’t necessary. I agree with what we’re doing,’ said Passmore.

‘I agree, too,’ said Jane Ambersom, disconcerted at the man’s self-doubt at this late stage. There’d been suggestions when she’d still been at MI6 that Smith wasn’t ruthless enough totally to destroy Monsford.

‘It’s technically a decision I’ve the authority to take: I’m ultimately responsible for the American liaison,’ Smith pointed out. ‘I’m exceeding that authority by not telling Bland or Palmer: keeping it from the enquiry committee. There’s no reason for either of you to be part of it.’

‘I’ve already alerted Natalia, through Ethel,’ said Jane. ‘The first of Irena’s transcripts is due from Washington in tonight’s diplomatic bag.’

‘What about Radtsic’s debriefing?’ queried Passmore. Today’s had been the shortest committee gathering yet, limited to an assessment of Rebecca’s morning encounter with the Russian.

‘Let’s establish—have Natalia establish if she can—how much the Americans have edited from Irena’s text,’ said Smith. ‘We’ve got more to offer than they have. I don’t want to give away too much: not give away anything without getting something in return.’ He turned to his deputy. ‘What about Rebecca?’

‘Too soon to hear,’ said Jane. ‘Realistically we’ve got to give her a couple of days.’

She stopped, waiting like Aubrey Smith while Passmore responded to his pager. ‘You’ve got a reason for making it quicker,’ said the operations direction, looking up. ‘Moscow’s just officially requested diplomatic access to Maxim Radtsic—’

‘We can bargain for access to Charlie and all the others,’ seized Jane, at once.

‘I haven’t finished,’ warned Passmore. ‘They’ve also asked for access to Natalia Fedova and Irena Yakulova Novikov. We know Natalia’s answer already. But what are we going to do about Irena? How the hell are we going to handle that?’

16

‘Is this a loyalty test?’ unexpectedly demanded Natalia, looking down at the helicopter-delivered dossier Ethel Jackson had put on the breakfast-room table between them. Natalia didn’t attempt to pick it up.

Ethel half smiled, quizzically. ‘A what?’

‘All that you’re asking me to do, to assess. Is it all genuine, something on which you need a judgement? Or am I being set a defector test?’

Ethel’s smile broadened. ‘You arrived here with pretty positive credentials as the wife of Charlie Muffin.’

‘That’s not an answer to my question.’

‘No, Natalia,’ agreed Ethel, patiently. ‘Nor is this a loyalty test. What I’m asking you to look at is the transcript of an early CIA debriefing of Irena Yakulova Novikov, which we’re asking you to give your professional opinion upon the extent of her co-operation. In what we’re asking you to examine she’s made some claims. We want you to judge those claims, if you can: tell us whether you believe they’re genuine or whether she’s trying to inflate her importance to negotiate a better resettlement deal—’

‘With the Americans?’ interrupted Natalia.

‘We’re liaising with the CIA.’

‘How’s that going to help free Charlie? That’s our understanding: what I’m trying to do is find anything that’ll help get Charlie out of Russia. I’m not here as a defector, needing to prove my worth. I’m here as Charlie’s wife, with his child.’

‘Which I already told you is how you’re being treated. But there is something you should know: something I was going to tell you if we hadn’t got into a loyalty discussion. Moscow has officially asked for diplomatic access to Maxim and Elena Radtsic. And to Irena Novikov, whom they believe still to be in this country.’ The woman paused. ‘And access to you.’

Natalia lapsed into silence, her forgotten coffee mug cupped in both hands. Finally looking up, she said, ‘You know my answer.’

Ethel shook her head. ‘I have to advise you of the approach.’

‘You know my answer,’ Natalia repeated.

‘Then Moscow will be told you absolutely refuse,’ said Ethel.

Gesturing to the blank-eyed television in the corner of the room, Natalia said, ‘I haven’t seen any official Moscow announcement of any defections.’

‘There hasn’t been any,’ confirmed Ethel.

‘That’s not normal.’

‘Neither is the defection of the executive deputy of the FSB. The guess is that they intend using his son to pressure Radtsic to go back.’

Natalia shook her head. ‘There should have been an official announcement.’

‘What’s the decision going to be on the others?’

‘The requests were only lodged last night, our time. I doubt they’ve been told: certainly not Irena, with the American time difference.’

Natalia once more looked to the American package on the separating table. ‘Is Radtsic co-operating as she is?’

‘I believe he is.’

‘Believe?’ queried Natalia. ‘Don’t you know?’

‘No, I don’t know,’ replied Ethel sharply, letting her irritation finally show at the other woman’s attitude. ‘And I’m not seeking your help about Maxim Radtsic, not yet at least. I’m looking for your professional guidance to use to Charlie’s benefit, particularly now there’s likely to be diplomatic contact to learn what’s physically happened to him. Which I thought you were as anxious to learn as a lot of other people who know, respect, and want to do everything they can to help him.’

Natalia became silent again, staring this time at the diplomatic package. At last, all belligerency gone, she said, ‘I’m sorry. That wasn’t right … how I’ve been behaving wasn’t right.’

Now Ethel remained silent, not giving Natalia an easy escape, needing the pause anyway to recover from her near mistake of talking not of people who knew Charlie but of those who loved him, which Natalia might have misconstrued. Finally she said, ‘Sylvia Elphick, Sasha’s teacher, talked to me last night: wanted to clear something before mentioning it to you.’

‘Clear what?’ said Natalia, instantly attentive. Sasha had left with the woman fifteen minutes earlier. Ethel had waited until they’d left before producing the American material.

‘She’s seconded here because of her obvious clearance: normally she teaches children of our diplomats about to be posted overseas,’ explained Ethel. ‘None of the children are there for long: everything’s transitory, no binding friendships, no exchange of family details. She’s thought, as we both have, about Sasha being here by herself and wondered if she wouldn’t benefit from going there. She thinks—’

‘No!’ rejected Natalia, positively. ‘It’s an obvious place for the Sluzhba to look: find her and trace her back here. Or just take Sasha, by herself, knowing that would be worse than killing me outright.’

‘My people wouldn’t consider it without carrying out every check.’

‘No,’ refused Natalia again, just as positively. ‘It’s too dangerous, whatever checks were carried out. It’s not a decision that needs to be made this soon. I need Charlie here, to talk it through with him.’

‘I won’t mention it to London, take it forward at all,’ soothed Ethel.

‘What about Sylvia Elphick?’ demanded Natalia. ‘Has she mentioned it to anyone at the school?’

‘She’s got the highest security clearance. She knows better than that. And she’s not at the school, is she? She’s here, tutoring Sasha.’

‘I want it independently screened: Sylvia Elphick screened,’ insisted Natalia. ‘It’s the sort of simple mistake that could lead them here to Sasha and me.’

‘I’ll see it’s done,’ promised Ethel. ‘And I’ll talk to Sylvia myself.’

‘I should do it.’

‘I should,’ contradicted Ethel. ‘I’m the officer with the authority here.’

Natalia finally picked up the package, hefting it in her hand. ‘I’m not being paranoid. This is how careful I’m always going to have to be.’

She
was
verging on paranoia, thought Ethel. She’d seen it before but this was the first time that a child had been involved. She’d have very carefully to monitor it: Natalia and the Sasha were her responsibility in every definition of that word. Had she loved Charlie? Ethel asked herself, giving way to the nagging reflection. Very much, she answered herself. Was it, in everyone’s wildest dreams, conceivably possible to get him out of whatever he was going through now? No, she accepted, in another immediate answer. Which wasn’t any reason at all to stop trying.

*   *   *

After a largely sleepless night of brief hope, quickly dashed by unusually objective examination, Gerald Monsford reluctantly acknowledged that the Russian approach wasn’t his desperately sought chance to re-establish some lost presence before a tribunal he gauged clearly to be siding against him. And with it, even more hopefully, the chance to puncture Rebecca Street’s over-inflated conviction that she had the authority to handle the Russian approach to Maxim Radtsic without him, which had been the dismissive message relayed through Harry Jacobson when he’d telephoned Hertfordshire. Jacobson hadn’t shown the proper respect, either, trying to talk about his Paris posting instead of admitting he’d failed to establish the demanded monitoring of the woman. As always, Monsford timed his close-to-last entry into the committee room to avoid any impression of uncertain nervousness and didn’t try, either, to be the first to speak after Sir Archibald Bland’s formal repetition of the Russian’s overnight diplomatic note. Neither, to Monsford’s irritation, did Aubrey Smith. Which resulted in Bland’s invitation, which Monsford momentarily didn’t understand, for Jane Ambersom to respond.

‘I agreed with Ms Street last night that she should immediately tell Radtsic and his wife: we know how closely Radtsic watches television news and we both decided it would have been a mistake for them to have heard of Moscow’s request through an official announcement from anyone but us,’ took up Jane, at once. ‘She told me during our second conversation, less than an hour later, that Radtsic was subdued by the news, which didn’t particularly surprise either of us although he would obviously have expected the request. Radtsic said he wanted to think about it overnight. Ms Street’s delayed her meeting with them today until after our session here. She expects Radtsic to agree. It’ll be his opportunity to raise the situation of Andrei with Russian officials.’

The anger boiled through Monsford at the arrogant impudence of the two women, cutting him out of it all, as if he didn’t exist! He was sure, too, they would have spoken to Bland or Palmer or maybe both, further isolating him.

‘Telling Radtsic at once was the right thing for her to have done,’ Palmer was saying, the praise increasing Monsford’s fury. ‘Diplomatically we can’t oppose or obstruct any meeting. It’s entirely a decision for Radtsic and his wife.’

‘What about Irena Novikov?’ asked Monsford, hoping to generate some criticism with which to get into the discussion. ‘Aren’t we diplomatically in a difficult position, my MI5 colleagues having handed her over to the Americans without informing Moscow?’

‘No,’ deflated Palmer, at once. ‘She officially sought sanctuary in the West and having been given the choice, chose America. The decision to tell Moscow is Washington’s and only then if she requested it; whether she did or not I don’t know.’

‘We’ve obviously told Washington about Moscow’s request, through their FBI liaison here,’ came in Aubrey Smith. ‘We don’t expect to hear back until tomorrow.’

‘I was thinking more of how Moscow might react at learning where she is,’ struggled Monsford.